I’ve actually been meaning to post this for quite some time now, but I’ve been reminded of it again and am finally getting around to it. I have in my 20-year-old NIV Study Bible on page 1599 a 3″x4″ Post-it Note affixed overtop of the notes on the bottom of the page. It contains three bullet-points referring to a text on that page, with a few brief notes about each one. The note represents advice at-the-ready that I could share with a group for anywhere from 5 minutes perhaps up to full sermon length. It always seemed a good idea to have something at the ready, and it is a bit of advice that I shared with leaders and leaders-in-training and people in ministry training or prophetic ministry. And now here it is on the blog. I say there are three lessons, but really it’s a single lesson in three points, designed to remind us who we are and put us in our place. Read more…

…and what I want to know is which of two phrases stand out most from this sentence? Is this the phrase that has always stood out?

At one time the crushing of Satan seemed paramount in the verse, but now the fact that God is a God of Peace stands out to me as the utmost. Perhaps for some the notable thing is under whose feet. Somehow in my post-charismatic viewpoint, the militant sword-rattling delight in the crushing of the Evil One takes a back seat to the nature of God as a God of Peace. What does this shift in viewpoint imply? If anything?

I’ve had an old post based on an older idea brewing for several years, and in honour of Blog Action Day, I’m pressing myself to rework and publish it. Blog Action Day is an experiment in response to the premise, “What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.” The issue? The environment. As I write, there are 11,320 blogs participating… I don’t know what that number will when it’s published.

I recently wrote On the Loss of Wonder and its follow-up visiting distinctly environmental themes just ahead of my mention of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment. Thoughts on the environment in connection to the Christian faith go back some way, but unfortunately there’s been a period of chosen ignorance on the matter. I hope to continue with corrective thought. Read more…

This is part two of a two-part essay. Yesterday I wrapped up part one by saying that nature and the city are at spiritual cross-purposes.

How so?

I’m thinking about the doctrine of general revelation. General revelation is the way in which God speaks through natural means to tell us of his existence. General revelation gives birth to wonder, to the search for God. As an indirect and incomplete knowledge of God, it is inadequate to satisfy, but in part, that’s the point — it’s the spark to yearn for more of God. The idea is that general revelation through the wonders of creation alerts us to the fact that God exists, but doesn’t give us enough revelation to find him, only to spark our search for him. Read more…

Quoth the Sage:

I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.— C.S. Lewis